Story Photos

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - Ash Wednesday is the one day of the year where Christians wear their faith on their foreheads.

For the first time, the Episcopal Church is bringing the ritual distribution of ashes out to the streets and sidewalks of Eugene and Springfield.

Priests, deacons and volunteers with the church spent time today on the University of Oregon campus and at the Eugene and Springfield bus stations marking ashes on the foreheads of those who wanted it.

"Jesus would have been on the streets. That's where his ministry would have been so we're trying to follow it there," Father Brent Was said. "You know if we wait around for people to come to the church, we'll be waiting around a long time."

Father Brent said Lent is a time of fasting, of giving up things and remembering our mortality and how close to dust we really are.

The ashes represent that.

"Ashes to Go is not a single serving of church, but an invitation that there's something more going on," he said.